Publication of The Works of Mr William Shakespearedited by dramatist Nicholas Rowe, the first modern edition of Shakespeare's plays, including scene divisions, dramatis personæ and a prefatory account of Shakespeare's life, the first substantial biography of him.

1.
1709
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As of the start of 1709, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. In the Swedish calendar it was a year starting on Friday, one day ahead of the Julian. January 6 – Western Europes Great Frost of 1709, the coldest period in 500 years, begins during the night, in France, the coast of the Atlantic and Seine river freeze, crops fail, and 24,000 Parisians die. Floating ice enters the North Sea, january 10 – Abraham Darby I successfully produces cast iron using coke fuel at his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in Shropshire, England. After sacking Guayaquil, he and Selkirk will visit the Galápagos Islands, march 28 – Johann Friedrich Böttger reports the first production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe, at Dresden. May – First influx into Britain of poor families of German Palatines from the Rhenish Palatinate. June 27 – Great Northern War, Battle of Poltava, In the Ukraine, Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, defeats Charles XII of Sweden, july 27 – Emperor Nakamikado accedes to the throne of Japan. July 30 – War of the Spanish Succession, Capture of Tournai by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, august 8 – The hot air balloon of Bartolomeu de Gusmão flies in Portugal. August 28 – Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur, october 9 – War of the Spanish Succession, British army captures Mons. October 12 – The city of Chihuahua in Mexico is founded, december 25 – From London, ten ships leave for the New York Colony, carrying over 4,000 people. Trinity School is founded as the Charity School of Trinity Church in New York City, the second Eddystone Lighthouse, erected off the south west coast of England by John Rudyerd, is completed. Publication of the first modern edition of William Shakespeares plays in London, de Nostri Temporis Studiorum Rationae is published by Neapolitan philosopher Giambattista Vico. Priceless medieval altarpieces by Michael Pacher are destroyed, date – Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist

2.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage

3.
Anne, Queen of Great Britain
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Anne became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, two of her realms, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, united as a sovereign state known as Great Britain. She continued to reign as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland until her death, Anne was born in the reign of her uncle Charles II, who had no legitimate children. Her father, James, was first in line to the throne and his suspected Roman Catholicism was unpopular in England, and on Charless instructions Anne was raised as an Anglican. Three years after he succeeded Charles, James was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Annes Dutch Protestant brother-in-law and cousin William III became joint monarch with his wife, Annes elder sister Mary II. Although the sisters had been close, disagreements over Annes finances, status and choice of acquaintances arose shortly after Marys accession, William and Mary had no children. After Marys death in 1694, William continued as sole monarch until he was succeeded by Anne upon his death in 1702, as queen, Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. The Whigs grew more powerful during the course of the War of the Spanish Succession and her close friendship with Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, turned sour as the result of political differences. Anne was plagued by ill health throughout her life, from her thirties onwards, she grew increasingly lame and obese. Despite seventeen pregnancies by her husband, Prince George of Denmark, she died without any surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. Anne was born at 11,39 p. m. on 6 February 1665 at St Jamess Palace, London, the child and second daughter of James, Duke of York. At her Anglican baptism in the Chapel Royal at St Jamess, her sister, Mary, was one of her godparents, along with the Duchess of Monmouth. The Duke and Duchess of York had eight children, but Anne, as a child, Anne suffered from an eye condition, which manifested as excessive watering known as defluxion. For medical treatment, she was sent to France, where she lived with her grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria. Following her grandmothers death in 1669, Anne lived with an aunt, Henrietta Anne, on the sudden death of her aunt in 1670, Anne returned to England. Her mother died the following year, as was traditional in the royal family, Anne and her sister were brought up separated from their father in their own establishment at Richmond, London. On the instructions of Charles II, they were raised as Protestants, placed in the care of Colonel Edward and Lady Frances Villiers, their education was focused on the teachings of the Anglican church. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was appointed as Annes preceptor, around 1671, Anne first made the acquaintance of Sarah Jennings, who later became her close friend and one of her most influential advisors

4.
Parliament of Great Britain
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The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. This lasted nearly a century, until the Acts of Union 1800 merged the separate British and Irish Parliaments into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom with effect from 1 January 1801. Following the Treaty of Union in 1706, Acts of Union ratifying the Treaty were passed in both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, which created a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts dissolved both parliaments, replacing them with a new parliament, referred to as the Parliament of Great Britain and it was not even considered necessary to hold a new general election. While Scots law and Scottish legislation remained separate, new legislation was thereafter to be enacted by the new parliament, after the Hanoverian King George I ascended the British throne in 1714 through the Act of Settlement of 1701, real power continued to shift away from the monarchy. George was a German ruler, spoke poor English, and remained interested in governing his dominions in continental Europe rather than in Britain. Reformers and Radicals sought parliamentary reform, but as the French Revolutionary Wars developed the British government became repressive against dissent and progress towards reform was stalled. During the first half of George IIIs reign, the still had considerable influence over Parliament. Most candidates for the House of Commons were identified as Whigs or Tories, reformers like William Beckford and Radicals beginning with John Wilkes called for reform of the system. In 1780 a draft programme of reform was drawn up by Charles James Fox and Thomas Brand Hollis and this included calls for the six points later adopted by the Chartists. Pitt had previously called for Parliament to begin to reform itself, proposals Pitt made in April 1785 to redistribute seats from the rotten boroughs to London and the counties were defeated in the House of Commons by 248 votes to 174

5.
2nd Parliament of Great Britain
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The 2nd Parliament of Great Britain was the first to actually be elected, as the 1st Parliament of Great Britain was drawn from the former Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland. The Parliament was summoned on 26 April 1708, the members of the House of Commons of Great Britain were elected between 30 April 1708 and 7 July 1708. Parliament was summoned to meet on 8 July 1708, under the Triennial Act, the Parliament was due to expire, if not sooner dissolved, at the end of the term of three years from the first meeting. Parliament was dissolved on 21 September 1710, on 16 November 1708, Sir Richard Onslow, Bt, MP for Surrey since 1689, was elected the second Speaker of the House of Commons of Great Britain. This Parliament was held before the office of Prime Minister had come into existence, the Lord High Treasurer was a very powerful and important minister of the Crown. The Lord High Treasurer, was Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, Godolphin was a Tory, but the Ministry last reconstructed in February 1708, included both Tory and Whig members. The factions supporting the Ministry were the Churchill Tories, Court Tory and Whig supporters of any Ministers the Queen cared to appoint, the great task of the Ministry had been to support Marlboroughs armies in continental Europe during the War of the Spanish Succession. Godolphins financial expertise was essential to that task, Queen Anne initiated a complete change of Ministry in August 1710. To an extent unusual in the period Godolphin and his friends were all removed from office, a new Ministry was constructed composed of Court Party supporters and Tory groups led by Robert Harley, Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester and Henry St John. Harley the ambitious MP from Radnor Boroughs had become associated with the Tories, since Godolphin, on 10 August 1710, the office of Lord High Treasurer was put in commission. The First Lord of the Treasury was John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, Robert Harley became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Soon after taking office the new Ministers arranged for Parliament to be dissolved, list of MPs elected in the British general election,1708 - British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings & Michael Thrasher. - His Majestys Opposition 1714-1830 by Archibald S. Foord

6.
Great Frost of 1709
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The severe cold occurred during the time of low sunspot activity known as the Maunder Minimum. William Derham recorded in Upminster, near London, a low of −12 °C on the night of 5 January 1709 and his contemporaries in the weather observation field in Europe likewise recorded lows down to −15 °C. Derham wrote in Philosophical Transactions, I believe the Frost was greater than any other within the Memory of Man, during the Great Northern War, the Swedish invasion of Russia led by Charles XII of Sweden against Russias Peter the Great was notably weakened by the severe winter. Sudden winter storms and frosts killed thousands during the Swedish armys winter offensives, France was particularly hard hit by the winter, with the subsequent famine estimated to have caused 600,000 deaths by the end of 1710. Because the famine occurred during wartime, there were contemporary nationalist claims that there were no deaths from starvation in the kingdom of France in 1709, according to Dennis Wheeler, a climatologist at the University of Sunderland, Something unusual seems to have been happening. The severity of the winter is thought to be an important factor in the emigration of the German Palatines from Central Europe and she wrote, Never in my life have I seen a winter such as this one. One of the key aims of the European Union Millennium Project is climate reconstruction, modern climate models do not appear to be entirely effective for explaining the climate of 1709

7.
North Sea
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The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest

8.
Abraham Darby I
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Abraham Darby, in his later life called Abraham Darby the Elder, now sometimes known for convenience as Abraham Darby I was the first and best known of several men of that name. Born into an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution and this was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution. Abraham Darby was the son of John Darby, a farmer and locksmith by trade. He was born at Woodsettle, Woodsetton, Staffordshire, just across the county boundary from Dudley and he was descended from nobility, his great-grandmother Jane was an illegitimate child of Edward Sutton, 5th Baron Dudley. Abrahams great-grandmother was a sister of the blood to Dud Dudley. Unfortunately, the iron that Dudley produced was not acceptable to the charcoal ironmasters, however, this may have inspired his great-grandnephew Darby to perfect this novel method of smelting. During the early 1690s Darby was apprenticed in Birmingham to Jonathan Freeth, a fellow Quaker, the combination of these two insights was to lead to Darbys development of the coke-fuelled blast furnace in 1709. Freeth encouraged Darby to become an active member in the Society of Friends. In 1699, when he completed his apprenticeship, he married Mary Sergeant and moved to Bristol, there was a small community of Quakers in Bristol, and Darby soon gained a reputation for skill and enterprise. In 1702 Darby joined with a number of fellow Quakers to form the Bristol Brass Company and he brought in Dutchmen to operate a brass battery work, making cooking pots and other holloware under a trip hammer. He also developed a method for casting pots in greensand moulds and this enabled pots to be mass-produced and to be thinner than those made by the traditional process of casting in loam moulds. For this purpose, he established the Cheese Lane Foundry in 1704, initially he cast brass pots, but by 1705, he moved on to using iron. A young Welsh apprentice, John Thomas, solved the problem by using sand for the mould, with a special casting box, using this casting method Darby could cast pots of sufficient thinness and lightness. Darby took out a patent on the new casting method in 1707, Darbys successors sold pots over wide areas of England and Wales, and had a virtual monopoly in the trade. For this he used an air furnace of a kind developed by Sir Clement Clerke, initially for smelting lead near Bristol. In 1700, another group of Bristol Quakers had agreed to set up a brass works somewhere in England and it is not clear where, but by 1712, Caleb Lloyd, Jeffrey Pinnell, Abraham Darby and his brother-in-law Thomas Harvey had brass works at Coalbrookdale. However, Darby was not a partner in establishing Tern Mill, near Tern Hall in 1709, though his partners Thomas Harvey, Lloyd, at this point Darby decided to leave the brass company and concentrate on his iron founding pursuits. Darby leased the furnace in September 1708, and set to work preparing to get it into blast and his first account book, running from 20 October 1708 to 4 January 1710 survives

9.
Cast iron
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Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its low melting temperature. Carbon ranging from 1. 8–4 wt%, and silicon 1–3 wt% are the main alloying elements of cast iron, Iron alloys with less carbon content are known as steel. While this technically makes the Fe–C–Si system ternary, the principle of cast iron solidification can be understood from the simpler binary iron–carbon phase diagram, cast iron tends to be brittle, except for malleable cast irons. It is resistant to destruction and weakening by oxidation, the earliest cast iron artefacts date to the 5th century BC, and were discovered by archaeologists in what is now Jiangsu in China. Cast iron was used in ancient China for warfare, agriculture, during the 15th century, cast iron became utilized for artillery in Burgundy, France, and in England during the Reformation. The first cast iron bridge was built during the 1770s by Abraham Darby III, cast iron is also used in the construction of buildings. Cast iron is made by re-melting pig iron, often along with quantities of iron, steel, limestone, carbon. Phosphorus and sulfur may be burnt out of the iron, but this also burns out the carbon. Depending on the application, carbon and silicon content are adjusted to the desired levels, other elements are then added to the melt before the final form is produced by casting. Cast iron is melted in a special type of blast furnace known as a cupola. After melting is complete, the molten cast iron is poured into a furnace or ladle. Cast irons properties are changed by adding various alloying elements, or alloyants, next to carbon, silicon is the most important alloyant because it forces carbon out of solution. A low percentage of silicon allows carbon to remain in solution forming iron carbide, a high percentage of silicon forces carbon out of solution forming graphite and the production of grey cast iron. Other alloying agents, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, titanium and vanadium counteracts silicon, promotes the retention of carbon, nickel and copper increase strength, and machinability, but do not change the amount of graphite formed. The carbon in the form of graphite results in an iron, reduces shrinkage, lowers strength. Sulfur, largely a contaminant when present, forms iron sulfide, the problem with sulfur is that it makes molten cast iron viscous, which causes defects. To counter the effects of sulfur, manganese is added because the two form into manganese sulfide instead of iron sulfide, the manganese sulfide is lighter than the melt so it tends to float out of the melt and into the slag

10.
Coke (fuel)
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Coke is a fuel with few impurities and a high carbon content, usually made from coal. It is the carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash. Cokes made from coal are grey, hard, and porous, while coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made. The form known as coke, or pet coke, is derived from oil refinery coker units or other cracking processes. Coke is used in preparation of producer gas which is a mixture of carbon monoxide, producer gas is produced by passing air over red-hot coke. Coke is also used to water gas. Historical sources dating to the 4th century describe the production of coke in ancient China, the Chinese first used coke for heating and cooking no later than the ninth century. By the first decades of the century, Chinese ironworkers in the Yellow River valley began to fuel their furnaces with coke. In 1589 a patent was granted to Thomas Proctor and William Peterson for making iron and steel and melting lead with earth-coal, sea-coal, turf, the patent contains a distinct allusion to the preparation of coal by cooking. In 1590 a patent was granted to the Dean of York to purify pit-coal, in 1620 a patent was granted to a company composed of William St. John, Robert Follensbee and other knights, mentioning the use of coke in smelting ores and manufacturing metals. In 1627 a patent was granted to Sir John Hacket and Octavius de Strada for a method of rendering sea-coal and pit-coal as useful as charcoal for burning in houses, without offense by smell or smoke. In 1603 Hugh Plat suggested that coal might be charred in an analogous to the way charcoal is produced from wood. In 1709 Abraham Darby I established a coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron, cokes superior crushing strength allowed blast furnaces to become taller and larger. The ensuing availability of iron was one of the factors leading to the Industrial Revolution. Before this time, iron-making used large quantities of charcoal, produced by burning wood, in the late 18th century, brick beehive ovens were developed, which allowed more control over the burning process. In 1768 John Wilkinson built a more practical oven for converting coal into coke, with greater skill in the firing, covering and quenching of the heaps, yields were increased from about 33 per cent to 65 per cent by the middle of the 19th century. The Scottish iron industry expanded rapidly in the second quarter of the 19th century. In 1802 a battery of beehives was set up near Sheffield, by 1870, there were 14,000 beehive ovens in operation on the West Durham coalfields, capable of producing 4.2 million tons of coke

11.
Coalbrookdale
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Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. It lies within the parish called the Gorge. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined coking coal, the coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides of the valley. As it contained far fewer impurities than normal coal, the iron it produced was of a superior quality, before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Madeley and the adjacent Little Wenlock belonged to Much Wenlock Priory. At the Dissolution there was a bloomsmithy called Caldebroke Smithy, the manor passed about 1572 to John Brooke, who developed coal mining in his manor on a substantial scale. His son Sir Basil Brooke was a significant industrialist, and invested in ironworks elsewhere and it is probable that he also had ironworks at Coalbrookdale, but evidence is lacking. He also acquired an interest in the patent for the process of making steel in about 1615. Though forced to surrender the patent in 1619, he continued making iron and steel until his estate was sequestrated during the Civil War, but the works continued in use. In 1651, the manor was leased to Francis Wolfe, the clerk of the ironworks, the surviving old blast furnace contains a cast-iron lintel bearing a date, which is currently painted as 1638, but an archive photograph has been found showing it as 1658. What ironworks existed at Coalbrookdale and from precisely what dates thus remains obscure, by 1688, the ironworks were operated by Lawrence Wellington, but a few years after the furnace was occupied by Shadrach Fox. He renewed the lease in 1696, letting the Great Forge, some evidence may suggest that Shadrach Fox smelted iron with mineral coal, though this remains controversial. Fox was evidently an iron founder, as he supplied round shot and grenado shells to the Board of Ordnance during the Nine Years War, but not later than April 1703 and it remained derelict until the arrival of Abraham Darby the Elder in 1709. However the forges remained in use, a brass works was built sometime before 1712, but closed in 1714. In 1709, the first Abraham Darby rebuilt Coalbrookdale Furnace, Darby renewed his lease of the works in 1714, forming a new partnership with John Chamberlain and Thomas Baylies. They built a furnace in about 1715, which was intended to be followed up with a furnace at Dolgûn near Dolgellau. However, Darby died prematurely in 1717, followed quickly by his widow Mary, the partnership was dissolved before Marys death, Baylies taking over Vale Royal. After Marys death, Baylies had difficulty extracting his capital, the works then passed to a company led by his fellow Quaker Thomas Goldney II of Bristol and managed by Richard Ford. Darbys son Abraham Darby the Younger was brought into the business as an assistant manager when old enough, the companys main business was producing cast-iron goods

12.
Blast furnace
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A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron, but also others such as lead or copper. The end products are usually molten metal and slag phases tapped from the bottom, the downward flow of the ore and flux in contact with an upflow of hot, carbon monoxide-rich combustion gases is a countercurrent exchange and chemical reaction process. In contrast, air furnaces are naturally aspirated, usually by the convection of hot gases in a chimney flue, according to this broad definition, bloomeries for iron, blowing houses for tin, and smelt mills for lead would be classified as blast furnaces. Blast furnaces existed in China from about 1st century AD and in the West from the High Middle Ages and they spread from the region around Namur in Wallonia in the late 15th century, being introduced to England in 1491. The fuel used in these was invariably charcoal, the successful substitution of coke for charcoal is widely attributed to Abraham Darby in 1709. The efficiency of the process was enhanced by the practice of preheating the combustion air. The oldest extant blast furnaces were built during the Han Dynasty of China in the 1st century AD. However, cast iron tools and weapons were widespread in China by the 5th century BC. These early furnaces had clay walls and used phosphorus-containing minerals as a flux, the effectiveness of the Chinese blast furnace was enhanced during this period by the engineer Du Shi, who applied the power of waterwheels to piston-bellows in forging cast iron. He suggests that early blast furnace and cast iron production evolved from furnaces used to melt bronze, certainly, though, iron was essential to military success by the time the State of Qin had unified China. Usage of the blast and cupola furnace remained widespread during the Song and Tang Dynasties and this may have happened as early as the 4th century AD. The Chinese blast furnace remained in use well until the 20th century, the backyard furnaces favoured by Mao Zedong during the Great Leap Forward were of this type. In the regions with strong traditions of metallurgy, the production actually increased during this period. In most places in the other than in China, there is no evidence of the use of the blast furnace. Instead, iron was made by reduction in bloomeries. The bloomery process was invented probably in modern-day Xinjiang or other parts of Western China by Hans or Mongols around 800 BC. Iron finds in China proper are few before bloomeries were supplanted by the blast furnace in the 5th century BC which seems to have developed independently in the southern Chinese cultural sphere, in Europe, the Greeks, Celts, Romans, and Carthaginians all used this process. Several examples have found in France, and materials found in Tunisia suggest they were used there as well as in Antioch during the Hellenistic Period

13.
Shropshire
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Shropshire Council was created in 2009, a unitary authority taking over from the previous county council and five district councils. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a unitary authority since 1998. The county has many towns, including Whitchurch in the north, Newport north-east of Telford. The Ironbridge Gorge area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covering Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, there are other historic industrial sites in the county, such as at Shrewsbury, Broseley, Snailbeach and Highley, as well as the Shropshire Union Canal. The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers about a quarter of the county, Shropshire is one of Englands most rural and sparsely populated counties, with a population density of 136/km2. The Wrekin is one of the most famous landmarks in the county, though the highest hills are the Clee Hills, Stiperstones. Wenlock Edge is another significant geographical and geological landmark, the River Severn, Great Britains longest river, runs through the county, exiting into Worcestershire via the Severn Valley. Shropshire is landlocked and with an area of 3,487 square kilometres is Englands largest inland county, the county flower is the round-leaved sundew. The area was part of the lands of the Cornovii. This was a tribal Celtic iron age kingdom and their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hill fort on the Wrekin. Ptolemys 2nd century Geography names one of their towns as being Viroconium Cornoviorum, after the Roman occupation of Britain ended in the 5th century, the Shropshire area was in the eastern part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, known in Welsh poetry as the Paradise of Powys. It was annexed to the Angle kingdom of Mercia by King Offa in the 8th century, in subsequent centuries, the area suffered repeated Danish invasion, and fortresses were built at Bridgnorth and Chirbury. Many defensive castles were built at this time across the county to defend against the Welsh and enable effective control of the region, including Ludlow Castle, the western frontier with Wales was not finally determined until the 14th century. Also in this period, a number of foundations were formed, the county largely falling at this time under the Diocese of Hereford. The county contains a number of historically significant towns, including Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, additionally, the area around Coalbrookdale in the county is seen as highly significant, as it is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution. The village of Edgmond, near Newport, is the location of the lowest recorded temperature in England, the origin of the name Shropshire is the Old English Scrobbesbyrigscīr, which means Shrewsburyshire. The name may, therefore, be derived indirectly from a name such as Scrope. Salop is an old name for Shropshire, historically used as a form for post or telegrams

14.
Woodes Rogers
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Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain and privateer and, later, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of the vessel that rescued marooned Alexander Selkirk, Rogers came from an affluent seafaring family, grew up in Poole and Bristol, and served a marine apprenticeship to a Bristol sea captain. His father held shares in ships, but he died when Rogers was in his mid-twenties. In 1707, Rogers was approached by Captain William Dampier, who sought support for a privateering voyage against the Spanish, Rogers led the expedition, which consisted of two well-armed ships, Duke and Duchess, and was the captain of Duke. In three years, Rogers and his men went around the world, capturing several ships in the Pacific Ocean, en route, the expedition rescued Selkirk, finding him on Juan Fernandez Island on 1 February 1709. The expedition made Rogers a national hero, but his brother was killed, on his return, he was successfully sued by his crew on the grounds that they had not received their fair share of the expedition profits, and Rogers was forced into bankruptcy. He wrote of his experiences in the book A Cruising Voyage Round the World. Rogers was twice appointed Governor of the Bahamas, where he succeeded in warding off threats from the Spanish, however, his first term as governor was financially ruinous, and on his return to England, he was imprisoned for debt. During his second term as governor, Rogers died in Nassau at the age of about 53, Woodes Rogers was the eldest son and heir of Woods Rogers, a successful merchant captain. Sometime between 1690 and 1696, Captain Rogers moved his family to Bristol, in November 1697, Woodes Rogers was apprenticed to Bristol mariner John Yeamans, to learn the profession of a sailor. At 18, Rogers was somewhat old to be starting a seven-year apprenticeship, little also suggests that it is likely that Rogers gained his maritime experience with Yeamans ship on the Newfoundland fleet. Rogers completed his apprenticeship in November 1704, the following January Rogers married Sarah Whetstone, daughter of Rear Admiral Sir William Whetstone, who was a neighbour and close family friend. Rogers became a freeman of Bristol because of his marriage into the prominent Whetstone family, in 1706, Captain Rogers died at sea, leaving his ships and business to his son Woodes. Between 1706 and the end of 1708, Woodes and Sarah Rogers had a son, at least four vessels in which Rogers had an ownership interest were granted the letters. One, Whetstone Galley, named for Rogers father in law and it did not reach Africa, but was captured by the French. Rogers suffered other losses against the French, although he does not record their extent in his book and he turned to privateering as a means of recouping these losses. In late 1707, Rogers was approached by William Dampier, a navigator and friend of Rogers father and this was a desperate move on the part of Captain Dampier to save his career. Commanding two frigates, Duke and Duchess, and captaining the first, Rogers spent three years circumnavigating the globe, the ships departed Bristol on 1 August 1708

15.
Alexander Selkirk
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Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent more than four years as a castaway after being marooned by his captain on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean. He survived that ordeal, but succumbed to illness a dozen years later while serving aboard HMS Weymouth off West Africa. Selkirk was a youth, and joined buccaneering voyages to the South Pacific during the War of the Spanish Succession. One such expedition was on Cinque Ports, commanded by William Dampier, the ship called in for provisions at the Juan Fernández Islands, and Selkirk judged correctly that the craft was unseaworthy and asked to be left there. When he was rescued by follow-on English privateer Woodes Rogers. His story of survival was widely publicised after their return to England, Alexander Selkirk was the son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, born in 1676. In his youth, he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition and he was summoned before the Kirk Session in August 1693 for his indecent conduct in church, but he did not appear, being gone to sea. He was back at Largo in 1701, when he came to the attention of church authorities for beating up his brothers. Early on, he was engaged in buccaneering, in 1703, he joined an expedition of English privateer and explorer William Dampier to the South Pacific Ocean, setting sail from Kinsale in Ireland on 11 September. Dampier was captain of St George, and Selkirk served on Cinque Ports, St Georges companion ship, by this time, Selkirk must have had considerable experience at sea. A raid on the Panamanian gold mining town of Santa María failed when their party was ambushed. The easy capture of Asunción, a merchantman, revived the mens hopes of plunder. Dampier took off some much-needed provisions of wine, brandy, sugar and flour, then set the ship free. In May 1704, Stradling decided to abandon Dampier and strike out on his own, Selkirk had grave concerns about the seaworthiness of their vessel and probably wanted to make the needed repairs before going any farther. He declared that he would stay on Juan Fernández than continue in a dangerously leaky ship. Glad to be rid of a troublemaker, Stradling took him up on the offer and landed Selkirk on the island with a musket, a hatchet, a knife, a cooking pot, Selkirk regretted his rashness, but Stradling refused to let him back on board. Cinque Ports did indeed later founder off the coast of what is now Colombia, Stradling and some of his crew survived the loss of their ship but were forced to surrender to the Spanish. The survivors were taken to Peru where they endured a harsh imprisonment, at first, Selkirk remained along the shoreline of Juan Fernández

16.
Daniel Defoe
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Daniel Defoe, born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy, most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism, Daniel Foe was probably born in Fore Street in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Defoe later added the aristocratic-sounding De to his name, and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux and his birthdate and birthplace are uncertain, and sources offer dates from 1659–1662, with 1660 considered the most likely. His father James Foe was a tallow chandler and a member of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway via the River Thames and his mother Annie had died by the time he was about ten. Defoe was educated at the Rev. James Fishers boarding school in Pixham Lane in Dorking, during this period, the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the Church of England. Defoe entered the world of business as a merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woollen goods. His ambitions were great and he was able to buy a country estate, in 1684, Defoe married Mary Tuffley, the daughter of a London merchant, receiving a dowry of £3,700 – a huge amount by the standards of the day. With his debts and political difficulties, the marriage may have been troubled, in 1685, Defoe joined the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion but gained a pardon, by which he escaped the Bloody Assizes of Judge George Jeffreys. Queen Mary and her husband William III were jointly crowned in 1688, and Defoe became one of Williams close allies, some of the new policies led to conflict with France, thus damaging prosperous trade relationships for Defoe, who had established himself as a merchant. In 1692, Defoe was arrested for debts of £700, though his total debts may have amounted to £17,000 and his laments were loud and he always defended unfortunate debtors, but there is evidence that his financial dealings were not always honest. Following his release, he travelled in Europe and Scotland, and it may have been at this time that he traded wine to Cadiz, Porto. By 1695, he was back in England, now using the name Defoe and serving as a commissioner of the glass duty. In 1696, he ran a tile and brick factory in what is now Tilbury in Essex, Defoes first notable publication was An Essay upon Projects, a series of proposals for social and economic improvement, published in 1697. From 1697 to 1698, he defended the right of King William III to an army during disarmament. His most successful poem, The True-Born Englishman, defended the king against the perceived xenophobia of his enemies, satirising the English claim to racial purity. In 1701, Defoe presented the Legions Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer Robert Harley and it demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who had asked Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France. The death of William III in 1702 once again created a political upheaval, in it, he ruthlessly satirised both the High church Tories and those Dissenters who hypocritically practised so-called occasional conformity, such as his Stoke Newington neighbour Sir Thomas Abney

17.
Robinson Crusoe
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Robinson Crusoe /ˌrɒbɪnsən ˈkruːsoʊ/ is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the works protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading readers to believe he was a real person. Despite its simple style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. It is generally seen as a contender for the first English novel, Crusoe sets sail from the Queens Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against the wishes of his parents, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm and this journey, too, ends in disaster, as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury, the ship is en route to Brazil. Crusoe sells Xury to the captain, with the captains help, Crusoe procures a plantation. He observes the latitude as 9 degrees and 22 minutes north and he sees penguins and seals on his island. As for his arrival there, only he and three animals, the dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and he builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and some he makes himself from ironwood, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery and he also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing, more years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing prisoners, when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion Friday after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity, after more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is Fridays father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Fridays father and bring back the others, build a ship, before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears, mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island

18.
Guayaquil
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Guayaquil, officially Santiago de Guayaquil, is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador, with around 2.69 million people in the metropolitan area, as well as the nations main port. The city is the capital of the Ecuadorian province of Guayas, Guayaquil is located on the western bank of the Guayas River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Guayaquil. Guayaquil is recognized by the government as having been founded on July 25,1538 with the name Muy Noble y Muy Leal Ciudad de Santiago de Guayaquil by Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana, even before it was founded by the Spanish, it already existed as a native village. In 1687, Guayaquil was attacked and looted by English and French pirates under the command of George dHout and Picard, of the more than 260 pirates,35 died and 46 were wounded,75 defenders of the city died and more than 100 were wounded. The pirates took local women as concubines, Guayaquil declared independence from Spain, becoming Provincia Libre de Guayaquil, and José Joaquín de Olmedo was named Jefe Civil of Guayaquil. This would prove to be a key victory for the Ecuadorian War of Independence, on July 26,1822, José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar held a famous conference in Guayaquil to plan for the independence of Spanish South America. In 1829, the city was invaded by the Peruvian Army, large portions of the city were destroyed by a major fire in 1896. Guayaquileños main sources of income are, formal and informal trade, business, most commerce consists of small and medium businesses, adding an important informal economy occupation that gives thousands of guayaquileños employment. The Port of Guayaquil is Ecuadors most important commercial port, most international import and export merchandise passes through the Gulf of Guayaquil, as the largest city in the country, most industries are located either in the city or its peripheral areas. Ongoing projects seek urban regeneration as an objective of the growth of the citys commercial districts. These projects in the city driven by the recent mayors have achieved this goal after investing large sums of money, the current municipal administration aims to convert Guayaquil into a place for first-class international tourism and multinational businesses. Guayaquils current mayor is Jaime Nebot, in August 2006, the citys first rapid transit bus system, Metrovia, opened to provide a quicker, high-capacity service. One of the projects was called Malecón 2000, the renovation of the waterfront promenade along the Guayas River. The park cost the city about 7 million dollars, the two bridges were a big addition to the Guayas River scenery. Guayaquil is the nations largest city and the capital of Guayas Province and it is on the Guayas River about 60 kilometres north of the Gulf of Guayaquil, near the Equator. Guayaquil is constantly facing tsunami and major earthquake threats due to its soil stratigraphy and location near the Gulf of Guayaquil and the south of North-Andean subduction zone. The city can be damaged by earthquake as its weak and compressible soil stratigraphy is composed of deep soft sediments over hard rocks. The tsunami threat is caused by the nearby Gulf of Guayaquil which also is one of the locations on the Earth where earthquakes tend to happen all the time

19.
Tatler (1709 journal)
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The Tatler was a British literary and society journal begun by Richard Steele in 1709 and published for two years. Tatler was founded in 1709 by Richard Steele, who used the nom de plume Isaac Bickerstaff, the original Tatler was published for only two years, from 12 April 1709 to 2 January 1711. A collected edition was published in 1710–11, with the title The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, in 1711, Steele and Addison decided to liquidate The Tatler, and co-founded The Spectator magazine, which used a different persona than Bickerstaff. Several later journals revived the name Tatler, three short series are preserved in the Burney Collection, John Morphew, the original printer, continued to produce further issues in 1711 under the Isaac Bickerstaffe name from 4 January to 17 May. A single issue of a rival Tatler was published by Baldwin on 11 January 1711, in 1753–4, several issues by William Bickerstaffe, nephew of the late Isaac Bickerstaffe were published. James Watson, who had previously reprinted the London Tatler in Edinburgh, began his own Tatler there on 13 January 1711, three months after the original Tatler was first published, an unknown woman writer using the pen name Mrs. Crackenthorpe published what was called the Female Tatler. Scholars from the 1960s to the 1990s thought the woman might have been Delarivier Manley, but she was subsequently ruled out as author. However, its run was shorter, the magazine ran for less than a year—from 8 July 1709 to 31 March 1710. The London Tatler and the Northern Tatler were later 18th-century imitations, the Tatler Revivd ran for 17 issues from October 1727 to January 1728, another publication of the same name had six issues in March 1750. On 4 September 1830, Leigh Hunt launched The Tatler, A Daily Journal of Literature and he edited it till 13 February 1832, and others continued it till 20 October 1832. In July 1901, Clement Shorter, the publisher of The Sphere, introduced a magazine called Tatler, after several mergers and name changes it was still in print a hundred years later, owned by Condé Nast Publications. Ross, Angus Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator ISBN 978-0140432985, edited with an introduction and notes. The Story of Tatler, A 300-year frolic through Tatlers history, bibliographical Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature. The Tatler and The Guardian The Tatler, Vol.1 at Project Gutenberg

20.
Refugee
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A refugee, generally speaking, is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Such a person may be called an asylum seeker until granted refugee status by the state or the UNHCR if they formally make a claim for asylum. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the United Nations Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations have a second Office for refugees, which is the UNRWA. This however is solely responsible for supporting Palestinian refugees and it refers to shelter or protection from danger or distress, from Latin fugere, to flee, and refugium, a taking refuge, place to flee back to. In Western history, the term was first applied to French Huguenots, after the Edict of Fontainebleau, who again migrated from France after the Edict of Nantes revocation. The word meant one seeking asylum, until around 1914, when it evolved to mean one fleeing home and this legal concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions 1967 Protocol. European Unions minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art, in UN parlance, the concept of refugee also includes descendants of refugees but only in the case of two specific groups, viz. Palestinian refugees and Sahrawi refugees. The UN does not consider refugee status to be hereditary for any other group, the UNHCR also protects people in refugee-like situations. It gives credence to the notion that personal individualized ‘fear of being persecuted’ is the reason for needing support. War, upheaval, famine and pestilence do not in the conventional definition make for refugee status. It does not matter that civilian deaths as a proportion of deaths in war escalated to 10% in World War I and it only matters that persons fear the persecution of their state. Furthermore, not all reasons for seeking asylum in another country satisfy the definition of refugee according to article 1A of the 1951 Refugee Convention, fleeing droughts and hunger, fleeing economic hardship, natural disasters and not even war or terror satisfied the definition of 1951. The idea that a person who sought sanctuary in a place could not be harmed without inviting divine retribution was familiar to the ancient Greeks. However, the right to asylum in a church or other holy place was first codified in law by King Æthelberht of Kent in about AD600. Similar laws were implemented throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, the related concept of political exile also has a long history, Ovid was sent to Tomis, Voltaire was sent to England. By the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, nations recognized each others sovereignty, the term refugee is sometimes applied to people who might fit the definition outlined by the 1951 Convention, were it to be applied retroactively. The repeated waves of pogroms that swept Eastern Europe in the 19th, beginning in the 19th century, Muslim people emigrated to Turkey from Europe. The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 caused 800,000 people to leave their homes, various groups of people were officially designated refugees beginning in World War I

21.
German Palatines
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The German Palatines were early 18th century emigrants from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire, including a minority from the Palatinate which gave its name to the entire group. The Poor Palatines were some 13,000 Germans who migrated to England between May and November 1709 and their arrival in England, and the inability of the British Government to integrate them, caused a highly politicized debate over the merits of immigration. The English tried to settle them in England, Ireland and the Colonies, the Palatine settlements did not prove to be viable in the long term, except for those settled in County Limerick and County Wexford in Ireland and in the colony of New York in British North America. In Ireland, less than 200 families remained after the settlement in 1709. Nevertheless, they maintained their distinctive culture until well into the nineteenth century, the largest concentration of descendants of Irish Palatine residents lives around Rathkeale, Co Limerick. The English transported nearly 3,000 German Palatines in ten ships to New York in 1710, many of them were first assigned to work camps along the Hudson River to work off their passage. Close to 850 families settled in the Hudson River Valley, primarily in what are now Germantown and Saugerties, later additional Palatine Germans settled along the Mohawk River for several miles, founding towns such as Palatine Bridge, and in the Schoharie Valley. Throughout the Nine Years War and the War of Spanish Succession, the migrants came principally from regions comprising the modern German states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, and northern areas of Baden-Württemberg along the lower Neckar. During the so-called Kleinstaaterei period when this occurred, the Middle Rhine region was a patchwork of secular. What triggered the mass emigration in 1709 of mostly impoverished people to England was the Crowns promise of land in the American Colonies. Parliament discovered in 1711 that several “agents” working on behalf of the Colony of Carolina had promised the peasants around Frankfurt free passage to the plantations. Spurred by the success of several dozen families the year before, thousands of German families headed down the Rhine to England, the first boats packed with refugees began arriving in early May 1709. The first 900 people were given housing, food and supplies by a number of wealthy Englishmen, throughout the summer, ships unloaded thousands of refugees, and almost immediately their numbers overwhelmed the initial attempts to provide for them. By summer, most of the Poor Palatines were settled in Army tents in the fields of Blackheath, a Committee dedicated to coordinating their settlement and dispersal sought ideas for their employment. During the reign of Queen Anne, political polarization increased, immigration and asylum had long been debated, from coffee-houses to the floor of Parliament, and the Poor Palatines were inevitably brought into the political crossfire. For the Whigs, who controlled Parliament, these provided an opportunity to increase Britain’s workforce. Only two months before the German influx, Parliament had enacted the Foreign Protestants Naturalization Act 1708, the rationale was the belief that an increased population created more wealth, and that Britain’s prosperity could increase with the accommodation of certain foreigners. Britain had already benefited from French Huguenot refugees, as well as the Dutch exiles, louis XIV of France had become infamous for the persecution of Protestants within his realm

22.
Electoral Palatinate
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Its rulers served as prince-electors from time immemorial, were noted as such in a papal letter of 1261, and were confirmed as electors by the Golden Bull of 1356. The Counts Palatine of the Rhine held the office of Imperial vicars in the territories under Frankish law and their climax and decline is marked by the rule of Elector Palatine Frederick V, whose coronation as King of Bohemia in 1619 sparked the Thirty Years War. After the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, the lands were further afflicted by the Reunion campaigns launched by King Louis XIV of France. Ruled in personal union with the Electorate of Bavaria from 1777, the office of a Count palatine at the Frankish court of King Childebert I was already mentioned about 535. Up to the 10th century, the rule of the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties was centered at the palace in Aachen. In 985, Herman I, a scion of the Ezzonids, is mentioned as count palatine of Lotharingia and his territories were centered in the Rhineland proper around Cologne and Bonn, but extended south to the Moselle and Nahe Rivers in Lorraine. The southernmost point was near Alzey, from about 1085/86, after the death of the last Ezzonian count palatine Herman II, the Palatinate lost its military importance in Lotharingia. The territorial authority of his successor Henry of Laach was reduced to the counties along the Upper Rhine, various noble dynasties competed to be enfeoffed with the Palatinate by the Holy Roman Emperor, among them the House of Ascania, the House of Salm and the House of Babenberg. The first hereditary Count Palatine of the Rhine was Conrad, a member of the House of Hohenstaufen, the territories attached to this hereditary office in 1156 started from those held by the Hohenstaufens in the Donnersberg, Nahegau, Haardt, Bergstraße and Kraichgau regions. Much of this was from their ancestors, the Salian emperors, and apart from Conrads maternal ancestry. These backgrounds explain the composition of Upper and Rhenish Palatinate in the inheritance centuries onwards, about 1182, Conrad moved his residence from Stahleck Castle near Bacharach up the Rhine River to Heidelberg. Upon Conrads death in 1195, the Palatinate passed to the House of Welf through the—secret—marriage of his daughter Agnes with Henry of Brunswick, when Henrys son Henry the Younger died without heirs in 1214, the Hohenstaufen king Frederick II enfeoffed the Wittelsbach duke Louis I of Bavaria. The Bavarian House of Wittelsbach eventually held the Palatinate territories until 1918, as this region was politically connected to the Rhenish Palatinate, the name Upper Palatinate became common from the early 16th century in contrast to the Lower Palatinate along the Rhine. With the Treaty of Pavia in 1329, the Wittelsbach emperor Louis IV, from that time forth, the Count Palatine of the Rhine was usually known as the Elector Palatine. The Elector Palatine, now based in Heidelberg, adopted Lutheranism in the 1530s, in 1619, Frederick V accepted the throne of Bohemia from the Bohemian estates. He was soon defeated by the forces of Emperor Ferdinand II at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, called the Winter King because his reign in Bohemia only lasted one winter, Frederick was put under the ban of the Empire in 1623. Frederick Vs territories and his position as Elector were transferred to the Catholic Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian I, although technically Elector Palatine, he was known as the Elector of Bavaria. From 1648 he ruled in Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate alone, but retained all his Electoral dignities, after Frederick Vs death, his wife Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, worked tirelessly to have the Palatinate restored to her family and to the Protestant cause

23.
Protestantism
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists

24.
New World
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The New World is one of the names used for the Earths Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term was coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the Americas were also referred to as the fourth part of the world. New World are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the worlds major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein. One can speak of the New World in a context, e. g. when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus. For lack of alternatives, the term is still useful to those discussing issues that concern the Americas. The term New World is used in a context, when one speaks of Old World. Biological taxonomists often attach the New World label to groups of species that are exclusively in the Americas, to distinguish them from their counterparts in the Old World. New World monkeys, New World vultures, New World warblers, the label is also often used in agriculture. Common Old World crops, and domesticated animals did not exist in the Americas until they were introduced by contact in the 1490s. Other famous New World crops include the cashew, cocoa, rubber, sunflower, tobacco, and vanilla, there are rare instances of overlap, e. g. In wine terminology, New World has a different definition, Vespucci was finally convinced when he proceeded on his mapping expedition through 1501-02, covering the huge stretch of coast of eastern Brazil. But this opinion is false, and entirely opposed to the truth, Vespuccis letter was a publishing sensation in Europe, immediately reprinted in several other countries. The Venetian explorer Alvise Cadamosto had used the term un altro mundo to refer to sub-Saharan Africa, however, this was merely a literary flourish, not a suggestion of a new fourth part of the world. Cadamosto was quite aware sub-Saharan Africa was firmly part of the African continent, the Italian-born Spanish chronicler Peter Martyr dAnghiera often shares credit with Vespucci for designating the Americas as a new world. Peter Martyr used the term Orbe Novo in the title of his history of the discovery of the Americas as a whole, a year later, Peter Martyr again refers to the marvels of the New Globe and the Western hemisphere. Christopher Columbus touched the continent of South America in his 1498 third voyage, in another letter, Columbus refers to having reached a new heavens and world and that he had placed another world under the dominion of the Kings of Spain. The Vespucci passage above applied the New World label to merely the continental landmass of South America, although the proceedings of the Toro-Burgos conferences are missing, it is almost certain that Vespucci articulated his recent New World thesis to his fellow navigators there. In English usage the term New World was problematic and only accepted relatively late, while it became generally accepted after Vespucci that Columbuss discoveries were not Asia but a New World, the geographic relationship between the two continents was still unclear

25.
Worcester
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Worcester is a city in Worcestershire, England,31 miles southwest of Birmingham and 27 miles north of Gloucester. The River Severn flanks the western side of the city centre, the Battle of Worcester was the final battle of the English Civil War, where Oliver Cromwells New Model Army defeated King Charles Is Cavaliers. Worcester is known as the home of Royal Worcester Porcelain, composer Edward Elgar, Lea & Perrins, makers of traditional Worcestershire sauce, the trade route past Worcester which later formed part of the Roman Ryknild Street dates to Neolithic times. The position commanded a ford over the River Severn and was fortified by the Britons around 400 BC and it would have been on the northern border of the Dobunni and probably subject to the larger communities of the Malvern hillforts. It may have been the Vertis mentioned in the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography, using charcoal from the Forest of Dean, the Romans operated pottery kilns and ironworks at the site and may have built a small fort. In the 3rd century, Roman Worcester occupied an area than the subsequent medieval city. Industrial production ceased and the settlement contracted to a position along the lines of the old British fort at the river terraces southern end. This settlement is identified with the Cair Guiragon listed among the 28 cities of Britain by the History of the Britons attributed to Nennius. This is not a British name but an adaption of its Old English name Weorgoran ceaster, the Weorgoran were precursors of Hwicce and probably West Saxons who entered the area some time after the 577 Battle of Dyrham. The oldest known church was St Helens, which was certainly British, the town was almost destroyed in 1041 after a rebellion against the punitive taxation of Harthacanute. During this time, the relocated to the nearby Bevere Island,2 miles upriver. The following century, the town was attacked several times during The Anarchy, by late medieval times the population had grown to around 10,000 as the manufacture of cloth started to become a large local industry. The town was designated a county corporate, giving it autonomy from local government. Worcester was the site of the Battle of Worcester, when Charles II attempted to regain the crown, in the fields a little to the west and south of the city. Worcester had supported the Parliamentary cause before the outbreak of war in 1642 but spent most of the war under Royalist occupation. After the war it used its location as the site of the final battles of the First Civil War. As part of this and not based upon any historical fact, it invented the epithet Fidelis Civitas, in 1670, the River Severn broke its banks and the subsequent flood was the worst ever seen by Worcester. The closest flood height to what is known as The Flood of 1670 was when the Severn flooded in the rains of July 2007

26.
War of the Spanish Succession
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The War of the Spanish Succession was a major European conflict of the early 18th century, triggered by the death in 1700 of the last Habsburg King of Spain, the infirm and childless Charles II. Charles II had ruled over a vast global empire, and the question of who would succeed him had long troubled the governments of Europe, the English, the Dutch and the Austrians formally declared war in May 1702. By 1708, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy had secured victory in the Spanish Netherlands and in Italy, France faced invasion and ruin, but Allied unity broke first. With the Grand Alliance defeated in Spain and with its casualties mounting and aims diverging, French and British ministers prepared the groundwork for a peace conference, and in 1712 Britain ceased combat operations. The Dutch, Austrians, and German states fought on to strengthen their own negotiating position, the Treaty of Utrecht and the Treaty of Rastatt partitioned the Spanish empire between the major and minor powers. The European balance of power was assured, in the late 1690s the declining health of King Charles II of Spain brought to a head the problem of his succession, a problem which had underlain much of European diplomacy for several decades. The empire was in decline, but remained the largest of the European overseas empires, unlike the French crown, the Spanish crowns could all be inherited by, or through, a female in default of a male line. The next in line after Charles II, therefore, were his two sisters, Maria Theresa, the elder, and Margaret Theresa, the younger, Maria Theresa had married Louis XIV in 1660 and by him she had a son, Louis, Dauphin of France. The testament of her father, Philip IV, reiterated this waiver and bequeathed the reversion of the whole of the Spanish dominions to his younger daughter, Margaret Theresa. However the French, using in part the excuse that the dowry promised Maria Theresa was never paid, nor was it clear whether a princess could waive the rights of her unborn children. Leopold I married Margaret Theresa in 1666, at her death in 1673 she left one living heir, Maria Antonia, who in 1685 married Max Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. Shortly before her death in 1692, she gave birth to a son, if he chose, Louis XIV could attempt to assert his will on Spain by force of arms, but the Nine Years War had been an immense drain on Frances resources. To seek a solution and gain support, Louis XIV turned to his long-standing rival William of Orange. England and the Dutch Republic had their own commercial, strategic and political interests within the Spanish empire, however, the Maritime Powers were in a weakened state and both had reduced their forces at the conclusion of the Nine Years War. Louis XIV and William III, therefore, sought to solve the problem of the Spanish inheritance through negotiation, based on the principle of partition, to take effect after the death of Charles II. However, the bulk of the empire – most of peninsular Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, Sardinia, the Spanish Empire was now divided between the three surviving candidates. By this new treaty Archduke Charles would receive most of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, Sardinia, and the overseas empire. For Leopold I, however, control of Spain and its empire was less important than Italy

27.
Tournai
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Tournai, known in Dutch as Doornik, is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres west-southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut. Tournai is part of the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, which had 2,155,161 residents in 2008, along with Tongeren, Tournai is the oldest city in Belgium and it has played an important role in the countrys cultural history. Tournai is located in the Wallonia region of Belgium, at the limit of the Flemish plain, in the basin of the River Scheldt. Administratively, the town is part of the Province of Hainaut and it is also a municipality that is part of the French-speaking Community of Belgium. Tournai has its own arrondissements, both administrative and judicial and its area of 213.75 square kilometres makes it the largest municipality in size in Belgium, it is also the largest in population in Western Hainaut. Rocks from the Tournai area date from the Carboniferous Period and have used to define the Tournaisian Age. Tournai stone is a limestone which takes a polish and was used particularly in the Romanesque period for sculpted items such as Tournai fonts. It is also enough to have been used locally for pavements. It is sometimes called Tournai marble, though this is geologically inaccurate, Tournai, known as Tornacum, was a place of minor importance in Roman times, a stopping place where the Roman road from Cologne on the Rhine to Boulogne on the coast crossed the river Scheldt. It was fortified under Maximian in the 3rd century AD, when the Roman limes was withdrawn to the string of outposts along the road and it came into the possession of the Salian Franks in 432. Under king Childeric I, whose tomb was discovered there in 1653, in 486, Clovis moved the center of power to Paris. In turn, a son of Tournai, Eleutherius, became bishop of the newly created bishopric of Tournai. In 862 Charles the Bald, first king of Western Francia and still to become Holy Roman Emperor, after the partition of the Frankish empire by the Treaties of Verdun and of Meerssen, Tournai remained in the western part of the empire, which in 987 became France. The city participated in 11th-century rise of towns in the Low Countries, with a cloth industry based on English wool. An ambitious rebuilding of the cathedral was initiated in 1030, the stone Pont des Trous over the Scheldt, with defensive towers at either end, was built in 1290, replacing an earlier wooden structure. During the 15th century, the textile trade boomed and it became an important supplier of tapestry. The art of painting flourished too, Jacques Daret, Robert Campin and it was captured in 1513 by Henry VIII of England, making it the only Belgian city ever to have been ruled by England. It was also represented in the 1515 Parliament of England, the city was handed back to French rule in 1519, following the Treaty of London

28.
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
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General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC, was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs. It was not until the accession of Queen Anne in 1702 that Marlborough reached the zenith of his powers and secured his fame and fortune. His marriage to the hot-tempered Sarah Jennings – Annes intimate friend – ensured Marlboroughs rise, first to the Captain-Generalcy of British forces, but his wifes stormy relationship with the Queen, and her subsequent dismissal from court, was central to his own fall. Incurring Annes disfavour, and caught between Tory and Whig factions, Marlborough, who had brought glory and success to Annes reign, was forced from office and went into self-imposed exile. He returned to England and to influence under the House of Hanover with the accession of George I to the British throne in 1714, Marlboroughs insatiable ambition made him the richest of all Annes subjects. His family connections wove him into the fabric of European politics and his leadership of the allied armies consolidated Britains emergence as a front-rank power. He successfully maintained unity among the allies, thereby demonstrating his diplomatic skills, Churchill was the son of Sir Winston Churchill of Glanvilles Wootton in Dorset, by his wife Elizabeth Drake, fourth daughter of Sir John Drake of Ash in the parish of Musbury in Devon. The Churchill family are stated by the Devon historian William George Hoskins to have originated at the estate of Churchill, in the parish of Broadclyst in Devon, although Winston had paid off the fine by 1651, it had impoverished him. From this episode may derive the Churchill family motto, Fiel Pero Desdichado, Winston Churchill and his wife Elizabeth Drake had at least nine children, only five of whom survived infancy. The eldest daughter, Arabella Churchill, was born on 28 February 1649, John Churchill, the two younger sons were George Churchill, an admiral in the Royal Navy, and Charles Churchill, a general who served on campaign in Europe with his eldest brother John. His descendant and biographer the Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, asserted that the conditions at Ashe might well have aroused in his mind two prevailing impressions, first a hatred of poverty. And secondly the need of hiding thoughts and feelings from those to whom their expression would be repugnant, after the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 his fathers fortunes took a turn for the better, although he remained far from prosperous. The Kings own penury meant the old Cavaliers received scant financial reward, thus in 1665, Johns sister Arabella became Maid of Honour to Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York. Some months later John,15, joined her at court serving as page to Annes husband, James, Duke of York, the Duke of Yorks passion for all things naval and military rubbed off on young Churchill. Often accompanying the Duke inspecting the troops in the royal parks, on 14 September 1667, he obtained a commission as Ensign in the Kings Own Company in the 1st Guards, later to become the Grenadier Guards. That is unlikely, and even Sir Winston S. Churchill says There is, indeed, the known facts are that he was commissioned Ensign in September 1667, as above. By February 1671, John Churchill was back in London and duelling with Sir John Fenwick, but his liaisons with the insatiable temptress were indeed dangerous. You are a rascal, said Charles, but I forgive you because you do it to get your bread

29.
Prince Eugene of Savoy
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Born in Paris, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV. Based on his physique and bearing, the Prince was initially prepared for a career in the church. Following a scandal involving his mother Olympe, he was rejected by Louis XIV for service in the French army, Eugene moved to Austria and transferred his loyalty to the Habsburg Monarchy. Spanning six decades, Eugene served three Holy Roman Emperors, Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI, however, the Princes fame was secured with his decisive victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta in 1697, earning him Europe-wide fame. Renewed hostilities against the Ottomans in the Austro-Turkish War consolidated his reputation, with victories at the battles of Petrovaradin, nevertheless, in Austria, Eugenes reputation remains unrivalled. Eugene died in his sleep at his home on 21 April 1736, Prince Eugene was born in the Hôtel de Soissons in Paris on 18 October 1663. His mother, Olympia Mancini, was one of Cardinal Mazarins nieces whom he had brought to Paris from Rome in 1647 to further his, the Mancinis were raised at the Palais-Royal along with the young Louis XIV, with whom Olympia formed an intimate relationship. Yet to her disappointment, her chance to become queen passed by. The King remained strongly attached to Olympia, so much so that many believed them to be lovers, after falling out of favour at court, Olympia turned to Catherine Deshayes, and the arts of black magic and astrology. Embroiled in the affaire des poisons, suspicions now abounded of her involvement in her husbands death in 1673. From the age of ten, Eugene had been brought up for a career in the church, in February 1683, to the surprise of his family, Eugene declared his intention of joining the army. The request was modest, not so the petitioner, he remarked, no one else ever presumed to stare me out so insolently. Denied a military career in France, Eugene decided to service abroad. One of Eugenes brothers, Louis Julius, had entered Imperial service the previous year, when news of his death reached Paris, Eugene decided to travel to Austria in the hope of taking over his brothers command. It was not a decision, his cousin, Louis of Baden, was already a leading general in the Imperial army, as was a more distant cousin, Maximilian II Emanuel. On the night of July 26,1683, Eugene left Paris, by May 1683, the Ottoman threat to Emperor Leopold Is capital, Vienna, was very real. With the Turks at the gates, the Emperor fled for the refuge of Passau up the Danube. It was at Leopold Is camp that Eugene arrived in mid-August, although Eugene was not of Austrian extraction, he did have Habsburg antecedents

30.
Battle of Malplaquet
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After a late start to the campaigning season owing to the unusually harsh winter preceding it, the allied campaign of 1709 began in mid June. Villars moved after him, under new orders from Louis XIV to prevent the fall of Mons at all costs – effectively an order for the aggressive Marshal to give battle. After several complicated manoeuvres, the two faced each other across the gap of Malplaquet, south-west of Mons. Boufflers was officially Villars superior but voluntarily serving under him, the allies had about 86,000 troops and 100 guns and the French had about 75,000 and 80 guns, and they were encamped within cannon range of each other near what is now the France/Belgium border. At around 1.00 pm Villars was badly wounded by a ball which smashed his knee. The decisive final attack was made on the now weakened French centre by British infantry under the command of the Earl of Orkney and this enabled the Allied cavalry to advance through this line and confront the French cavalry behind it. A fierce cavalry battle now ensued, in which Boufflers personally led the troops of the Maison du Roi. He managed no less than six times to drive the Allied cavalry back upon the redans, finally, by 3.00 pm Boufflers, realising that the battle could not be won, ordered a retreat, which was made in good order. The Allies had suffered so many casualties in their attack that they could not pursue him, by this time they had lost over 21,000 men, almost twice as many as the French. Villars himself remarked on the enemys Pyrrhic victory via the flip-side of King Pyrrhus famous quote, If it please God to give your majestys enemies another such victory, they are ruined. A first-hand account of the Battle of Malplaquet is given in the book Amiable Renegade, Captain Peter Drake, an Irishman who spent most of his life as a mercenary in the service of various European armies, served the French cause in the battle and was wounded several times. Drake wrote his memoirs at an advanced age, in contrast with the Dukes previous victories, however, the French army was able to withdraw in good order and relatively intact, and remained a potent threat to further allied operations. Nonetheless, news of Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the century, stunned Europe. For the last of his four great battlefield victories, the Duke of Marlborough received no letter of thanks from Queen Anne. The rumour post-battle that even Marlborough had died spawned one of the most popular French folk songs of all time, margery Allinghams mystery novel Sweet Danger includes a vital document hidden in the Malplaquet or Pontisbright drum. Battle of Malplaquet at Battlefield Anomalies, the French Army 1600–1900 Battle of Malplaquet at BritishBattles. com Amiable Renegade, The Memoirs of Captain Peter Drake

31.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles

32.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen

33.
Kingdom of Prussia
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It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, the kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia was a power from the time it became a kingdom, through its predecessor, Brandenburg-Prussia. Prussia continued its rise to power under the guidance of Frederick II, more known as Frederick the Great. After the might of Prussia was revealed it was considered as a power among the German states. Throughout the next hundred years Prussia went on to win many battles and it was because of its power that Prussia continuously tried to unify all the German states under its rule. Attempts at creation of a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when war ensued between its two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria. The North German Confederation which lasted from 1867–1871, created a union between the Prussian-aligned states while Austria and most of Southern Germany remained independent. The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, the German Empire lasted from 1871–1918 with the successful unification of all the German states under Prussian hegemony. This was due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in 1871, Germany unified into a single country, minus Austria and Switzerland, with Prussia the dominant power. Prussia is considered the predecessor of the unified German Reich. The Kingdom left a significant cultural legacy, today notably promoted by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, in 1415 a Hohenzollern Burgrave came from the south to the March of Brandenburg and took control of the area as elector. In 1417 the Hohenzollern was made an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, after the Polish wars, the newly established Baltic towns of the German states including Prussia, suffered many economic setbacks. Many of the Prussian towns could not even afford to attend political meetings outside of Prussia, the towns were poverty stricken, with even the largest town, Danzig, having to borrow money from elsewhere to pay for trade. Poverty in these towns was partly caused by Prussias neighbors, who had established and developed such a monopoly on trading that these new towns simply could not compete and these issues led to feuds, wars, trade competition and invasions. However, the fall of these gave rise to the nobility, separated the east and the west. It was clear in 1440 how different Brandenburg was from the other German territories, not only did it face partition from within but also the threat of its neighbors. It prevented the issue of partition by enacting the Dispositio Achillea which instilled the principle of primogeniture to both the Brandenburg and Franconian territories, the second issue was solved through expansion

34.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

35.
Mons
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Mons is a Belgian city and municipality, and the capital of the province of Hainaut. Together with the Czech city of Plzeň, Mons was the European Capital of Culture in 2015, the first signs of activity in the region of Mons are found at Spiennes, where some of the best flint tools in Europe were found dating from the Neolithic period. When Julius Caesar arrived in the region in the 1st century BC, the region was settled by the Nervii, a Belgian tribe. A castrum was built in Roman times, giving the settlement its Latin name Castrilocus, soon after, Saint Waltrude, daughter of one of Clotaire II’s intendants, came to the oratory and was proclaimed a saint upon her death in 688. Like Ath, its neighbour to the north-west, Mons was made a city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population grew quickly, trade flourished, and several buildings were erected near the Grand’Place. The 12th century also saw the appearance of the first town halls, the city had 4,700 inhabitants by the end of the 13th century. Mons succeeded Valenciennes as the capital of the county of Hainaut in 1295, in the 1450s, Matheus de Layens took over the construction of the Saint Waltrude church from Jan Spijkens and restored the town hall. In 1515, Charles V took an oath in Mons as Count of Hainaut, after the murder of de Coligny during the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, the Duke of Alba took control of Mons in September 1572 in the name of the Catholic King of Spain. This spelled the ruin of the city and the arrest of many of its inhabitants, from 1580 to 1584, on 8 April 1691, after a nine-month siege, Louis XIV’s army stormed the city, which again suffered heavy casualties. From 1697 to 1701, Mons was alternately French or Austrian, after being under French control from 1701 to 1709, the Dutch army gained the upper hand in the Battle of Malplaquet. In 1715, Mons returned to Austria under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, but the French did not give up easily, Louis XV besieged the city again in 1746. After the Battle of Jemappes, the Hainaut area was annexed to France, following the fall of the First French Empire in 1814, King William I of the Netherlands fortified the city heavily. In 1830, however, Belgium gained its independence and the decision was made to dismantle fortified cities such as Mons, Charleroi, the actual removal of fortifications only happened in the 1860s, allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects. The Industrial Revolution and coal mining made Mons a center of heavy industry and it was to become an integral part of the sillon industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia. On 17 April 1893, between Mons and Jemappes, seven strikers were killed by the guard at the end of the Belgian general strike of 1893. The proposed law on universal suffrage was approved the day after by the Belgian Parliament and this general strike was one of the first general strikes in an industrial country. On 23–24 August 1914, Mons was the location of the Battle of Mons—the first battle fought by the British Army in World War I

36.
Statute of Anne
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Prior to the statutes enactment in 1710, copying restrictions were authorized by the Licensing of the Press Act 1662. These restrictions were enforced by the Stationers Company, a guild of printers given the power to print—and the responsibility to censor—literary works. The censorship administered under the Licensing Act led to public protest, as the act had to be renewed at two-year intervals, in 1694, Parliament refused to renew the Licensing Act, ending the Stationers monopoly and press restrictions. Over the next 10 years the Stationers repeatedly advocated bills to re-authorize the old licensing system, faced with this failure, the Stationers decided to emphasise the benefits of licensing to authors rather than publishers, and the Stationers succeeded in getting Parliament to consider a new bill. This bill, which after substantial amendments was granted Royal Assent on 5 April 1710, following this, the works copyright would expire, with the material falling into the public domain. The statute is considered an event in Anglo-American copyright history. Transforming what had been the private law copyright into a public law grant. Under the statute, copyright was for the first time vested in authors rather than publishers, it included provisions for the public interest. With the introduction of the press to England by William Caxton in 1476. As early as 1483, Richard III recognised the value of works by specifically exempting them from the governments protectionist legislation. This was followed by increasing degrees of censorship and this censorship peaked on 4 May 1557, when Mary I issued a royal warrant formally incorporating the Stationers Company. Instead, the royal warrant devolved this power to the Company and this was done by decreeing that only the Companys publishers could print and distribute books. Their Wardens were given the power to enter any printing premises, destroy illegal works, the legislation required renewal every two years, and was regularly reapproved. The result was a public sphere provided the context that enabled the collapse of traditional press controls. The result of this environment was the lapse of the Licensing Act, in November 1694, a committee was appointed by the Commons to see what laws were lately expired and expiring fit to be revived and continued. The Committee reported in January 1695, and suggested the renewal of the Licensing Act, this was included in the Continuation Bill, when it reached the House of Lords, the Lords re-included the Licensing Act, and returned the bill to the Commons. In response, a committee was appointed - this one to produce a report indicating why the Commons disagreed with the inclusion of the Licensing Act. This committee soon reported to the Commons, and Clarke was ordered to carry a message to the Lords requesting a conference over the Act

37.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick

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Marlborough House
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It was built for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, the favourite and confidante of Queen Anne. For over a century it served as the London residence of the Dukes of Marlborough, the Duchess wanted her new house to be strong, plain and convenient and good. The architect Christopher Wren and his son of the name designed a brick building with rusticated stone quoins that was completed in 1711. The house was taken up by the Crown in 1817, Marlborough House was primarily used by members of the Royal Family, especially dowager queens and by Prince Albert Edward of Wales and his wife Alexandra. Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, was given the use of Marlborough House from 1831 until her death in 1849. From 1853 to 1861 Prince Albert, the consort of Queen Victoria, arranged for the building to be used by the National Art Training School, later the Royal College of Art. From 1861-1863, the building was enlarged to designs by Sir James Pennethorne, who added a range of rooms on the north side. This was done for the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, and his wife the Princess of Wales, Alexandra of Denmark, after Edward VII died in 1910, Alexandra reverted to Marlborough House as her London home, until her death in 1925. A late Art Nouveau-Gothic memorial fountain by Alfred Gilbert in the Marlborough Road wall of the house commemorates her, in 1936 Marlborough House became the London residence of their sons widow, Queen Mary. Mary survived George by 17 years, in the grounds of the house remains her pet cemetery. A thatch-roofed rotating summer house built for her still is in place, a plaque to commemorate Queen Mary was unveiled by the Queen in 1967 in the exterior wall closest to the corner with the Mall. The nearly cubical saloon retains wall-paintings by Louis Laguerre of the Battle of Blenheim, a cupola inserted in the ceiling is surrounded by paintings by Orazio Gentileschi for the Queens House, Greenwich,1636. There are paired staircases flanking the saloon, with further battle pieces by Laguerre, most of the interiors have been altered. Marlborough House is usually open to the public for Open House Weekend each September, the house is also open for group tours by prior arrangement. Visiting Information at The Commonwealth Secretariat Virtual tour Flickr images tagged Marlborough House

The Kingdom of Great Britain, also referred to as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, though officially Great Britain, …

Walpole's grand estate at Houghton Hall represents the patronage rewards he bestowed on himself. It housed his great art collection and often hosted the English elite. The king made him Duke of Orford when he retired in 1742.

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Former blast furnace in Port of Sagunto, Valencia, Spain.

Blast furnace in Sestao, Spain. The furnace itself is inside the central girderwork.

Part of the gas cleaning system of a blast furnace in Monclova, Mexico. This one is about to be de-commissioned and replaced.

The left picture illustrates the fining process to make wrought iron from pig iron, with the right illustration displaying men working a blast furnace of smelting iron ore producing pig iron, from the Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia, 1637

Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's (City of Westminster, Inner London), is the headquarters of …

Marlborough House - south side

In its original form Marlborough House had just two storeys. This illustration of c.1750 shows the garden front.

This view of the entrance front published in the 1850s before Pennethorne's additions shows an additional storey on the wings. The wings later gained a fourth main storey, and the central section gained a third.

Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language, …

A detail of the first page of the Beowulf manuscript, showing the words "ofer hron rade", translated as "over the whale's road (sea)". It is an example of an Old English stylistic device, the kenning.

Alfred the Great statue in Winchester, Hampshire. The 9th-century English King proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin.